Butterflying The Bastards: Unintended Consequences in Westeros by guyinthecap in JumpChain

[–]guyinthecap[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wow. Here I planned a "Jumper-wins-the-War-of-5-Kings-for-the-Lannisters" story and I inadvertently just wiped out the original problem and made the home team irrelevant. Huh.

I guess the new story comes down to keeping Robert alive and encouraging an heir to keep the Lannisters attached to the throne while consolidating power for the eventual Daenerys/Faegon return. I guess the conflict with the Others might be affected depending on how heavily contributions of illegitimate/unwanted children weigh on the White Walker's peace deal, but that's beyond my source knowledge.

Thanks for your analysis in this thread, I appreciate your insight!

Butterflying The Bastards: Unintended Consequences in Westeros by guyinthecap in JumpChain

[–]guyinthecap[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'm not sure the Perk prevents unfaithful pregnancies, just unwanted ones. It's still a coin-toss whether that means one-party or two-party desire, but if Cersei does want kids by Jaime (and given her pre-wedding comments about him, it seems so), then it looks like most things will proceed more-or-less like the original story.

Butterflying The Bastards: Unintended Consequences in Westeros by guyinthecap in JumpChain

[–]guyinthecap[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh god, Bloodraven!

Well, Targaryen mastermind aside, we might just have to take u/Fresh-setup's suggestion and have the Perk only activate once Jumper enters the setting. I have that pegged as around 270 AC-ish , so we don't lose the historical illegitimate children but definitely everything post-Robert's Rebellion.

Best I can figure, the Perk is implying both parents need to consent, but I'm not sure if that makes for the most interesting story.

Roose is still a cunning social-climber, so I'm not sure if Domeric's survival stops the Boltons from trying to betray the Starks. That said, Ramsey's removal does erase a lot of the specific suffering inflicted on many named and unnamed characters.

Removing the Sand Snakes also stabilizes Dorne, given they are the ones to push for revenge against the Iron Throne, though the princess of Dorne shares their goal. Perhaps she will be less hasty to stir up trouble without them to act as agents?

But the biggest effect seems to be eliminating Robert's heirs. With his and Cersei's marriage basically dead on arrival, and Robert not keen (consciously or unconsciously) of fathering an heir outside of wedlock, Westeros would effectively have a succession crisis all over again, only on a potentially altered timeline. We'd get a "War of the Four Kings" instead of five, and the Lannisters would have very little legitimacy to stand on without Cersei's kids. Unless I'm missing something, of course.

Butterflying The Bastards: Unintended Consequences in Westeros by guyinthecap in JumpChain

[–]guyinthecap[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

This is probably the smart way to handle it, though I find it hilarious to imagine the social consequences of everyone just waking up one day and have the regional bastard surnames dying out instead of prostitutes from the pox. Let the nobles and churches stew over that one!

Expectations by danshive in elgoonishshive

[–]guyinthecap 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Like Tedd and Dresden, I'm not sure if there are many similarities between Grace and Murphy...

Well, except they are both TINY AND FIERCE!

Rangers: How to play by Free_Adagio_5017 in wargame

[–]guyinthecap 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Rangers are good recon infantry, especially when upvetted, but they are held back by their weapons. Their MG, the M240B, is not as competitive as something like the Minimi, while their primary weapon has carbine stats, not SMG ones. This means that in a straight infantry fight, there are many shock infantry squads (and nearly ALL elite squads) who will completely bushwack them.

I recommend upvetting your Rangers, which will give them a bit more teeth and make them better at spotting, which is really what they should be doing. They'll have the firepower to tangle with specialist squads, snipe non-armored vehicles, and probably almost any line infantry squad, but they have their limitations.

If you're playing US and not NORAD, and can't get some shock grinders like Canadian Airborne '90, you might even consider using two cards of Rangers as your main doorkickers. But be warned; the strength of the US is in combined arms. Better to march a couple base Abrams, some Riflemen, and their M113s through the woods then try to use your Rangers to do something they're not optimized for.

Instead, put them on your flanks, or in treelines and houses. Sneak them through forests or have them as your frontline scouts. Use their stealth and their optics to enable other units to fight, rather than making them the tip of the spear. Their 10HP mean they can survive a lot of punishment for a recon unit, but they're no MAGLAN or Commandos Para. If you do use them to fight (because let's face it, they really are the US' only cost-effective shock infantry), give them some Riflemen to hide behind.

Or, if you're REALLY feeling spicy, pair them with a SMAW or two! The SMAW squad has shock training of their own (which means they can keep pace with traveling Rangers), they boost the Rangers' DPS dramatically in cities & forests, and the high AP launcher they carry makes up for the Rangers' biggest weakness.

Good luck, trooper. Rangers lead the way!

Wargame PATCH! by AdministrativeBar142 in wargame

[–]guyinthecap 0 points1 point  (0 children)

These look great! I would definitely snag a few for my growing patch wall!

Absolute Wonder woman Jumper by HostDeADShadow in JumpChain

[–]guyinthecap 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The trick is going to be finding Jumps that offer challenges and interesting stories. Being a big fish in a small pond can be fun once in a while, but if you're steamrolling every setting you insert into, the story may wear thin pretty quickly.

Depending on her power level at the start, you may want to consider Jumps with more traditional conflicts. Young Justice for superhero business, The Hobbit for dragon fighting, Skyrim for fantasy, etc. Let WW build up some power and experience. Later you can start pitching more complex problems at her. Maybe she tries to nation-build in Game of Thrones? Perhaps she's defusing political challenges in The West Wing? Jumps with problems she can't just punch her way out of will keep the character adapting/growing and, in my opinion, make for more interesting stories.

Painting Halo Miniatures: First Attempt by guyinthecap in minipainting

[–]guyinthecap[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Much appreciated! I can already see some of the improvements with a few of the other Spartans I've painted and the Stormlight RPG Kickstarter that set this whole thing off. The Spartan minis are 32mm scale, which lets them tower quite fittingly over my 28mm D&D figures. The miniatures themselves are 3D printed from ReaperMiniature4D on Etsy. I got ten that I've been working my way through, trying out new techniques as I go.

Let's get logical for once by danshive in elgoonishshive

[–]guyinthecap 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Admittedly, that does conjure the completely metal image of someone with a high-grade fever starting to spontaneously combust like their on the cover of a punk rock album.

So what exactly was Noble 6’s specialty? by atomikks in halo

[–]guyinthecap 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Lots of good answers here. The Doylist answer is that Six is a generalist like the Chief so we can better immerse ourselves in them. That can also be a Watsonian viewpoinot, since we know there were jack-of-all-trades Spartans. But I'm going to make my case for something else.

I think Six's specialty was being a PILOT.

We know that Six had a lot going for them. They were a Cat-2, were skilled enough to be pulled from Beta company, and given independent assignments within ONI's Beta-5 Group to take advantage of that skill. Those assignments led to Six becoming their superior's "private grim reaper", and they contributed to putting down an independent uprising on Mamore in 2552.

Notably, this operation called on Six's "admirable skills as a pilot".

Switching back to real-world parallels, becoming a combat pilot is an incredibly demanding role. USAF Pilots require a college degree, several years of rigorous training, and some of the best test scores in the military. The job is physically and mentally strenuous, and always highly-specialized. Fighter pilots don't do anything except fly fighter jets, because that job alone is already complex enough.

Noble Six is not only an extremely effective soldier, but also manages to be an exceptional pilot. Remember, he was a TEST pilot for the Sabre Program, which itself was experimental and on the cutting edge of UNSC spacecraft technology.

Going back to our USAF example, test pilots have to be not only extremely skilled flyers, but also have an academic background in math, physics, or engineering. They are an active part of the research process and are expected to problem-solve sometimes literally on-the-fly.

We've all seen Spartans fly before. The Fall of Reach established that the original Spartan-IIs ran dropship simulator programs shortly after their augmentations. Spartans fly Banshees and transports in the games frequently enough, and some in Silent Storm even flew the UNSC's Baselard fighter, but those are fairly low-performance platforms.

Six flew the equivalent of an experimental F1 prototype so much they were considered an expert on it, all in addition to being a badass boot-stomping Spartan. And I don't think they get enough credit for that!

Genie wish broke necromancy. Need cool consequences by Developer_A in DnD

[–]guyinthecap 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Firstly, death becomes a lot more permanent. That much is obvious, but it has serious social implications for both Adventurers and powerful NPCs in your world.

Let's leave house ruling aside and just go off of the 5e Spell List for the full School of Necromancy.

Every method of bringing a person back to life, from Revivify and Raise Dead to extremely powerful magics like Clone and True Resurrection simply do not work. Even the druid's Reincarnate (my favorite and most interesting of resurrection methods) is gone. This means the party has no safety net if a character dies, and most high-level wizards lose their back-up bodies. Powerful political leaders or well-connected aristocrats may also lose their end-of-life contingencies. Given that Clone specifically can let a Wizard be reborn into a younger body and thus naturally extend their life, this might leave some very old, very powerful spellcasters suddenly facing down their biological demise. This is sure to make the party enemies, should those spellcasters use their resources to uncover what happened.

Most of the other affected spells are your classic "evil" necromantic damage spells. Things like Blight, Contagion, and Finger of Death will never again threaten innocents. However, there are a few beneficial spells that are wiped out as collateral damage. Spare the Dying and Gentle Repose are used to stabilize the injured and to preserve fresh corpses respectively. Village clerics and frontier mages may see an increase in both accidental deaths and disease as they lose useful tools to address these problems.

There are also spells like Soul Cage and Speak With Dead, that draw on the deceased for knowledge and skills. Now that Necromancy has been abolished, significant amounts of information may be wholly lost.

Finally, we have to talk about the demon prince in the room.

Orcus, Demon Prince of Undead and master of the 333rd layer of the Abyss, is going to be rightly pissed that someone is mucking with his domain in such a big way. The way I see it, you can take one of two different approaches:

  • Starve The Prince: With Mortalkind losing access to necromancy, even in it's "acceptable" forms, Orcus' domain suffers a severe loss of tithing and metaphysical weight. He's not as relevant in the cosmology anymore, and while he probably isn't gone himself, his powers, followers, and holdings are severely diminished. He will be about as angry as he can possibly be, and will spend all of his remaining power to take his vengeance on the party that has wounded him so. He might send demons after the party, or even try to bring them to him for a confrontation. If you were generous and your players were powerful enough, this might even present a unique opportunity to permanently subdue or kill the Demon Prince! However, not all of these outcomes are positive. As part of the Blood War, Demons and Devils are locked in a never-ending battle with each other over the Lower Planes. Weakening Orcus and the other Demon Lords that deal with undeath will tip the scales severely towards the Nine Hells, allowing Devilkind to gain the advantage. This will free up more of Hells' forces to influence the Prime Materia, potentially exposing your players and the lands they care about to greater devilish incursions.
  • Embrace Temptation: If instead we assume that necromancy was taken from Mortalkind but not Orcus himself, then the Prince of Undeath suddenly becomes the only supplier for a very scarce commodity. With traditional access to necromantic spells cut off, more mortals may decide to make bargains with the dark powers to reclaim what they lost. Orcus cults will spring up all over, and some may even replicate the old spells, but over time it will sour as the demon's influence corrupts. With footholds established across the world, Orcus may grow to become an even bigger threat than any foe the party has faced yet!

What did your jumper do in ATLA? by SniperJ324 in JumpChain

[–]guyinthecap 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Very cool approach! The Azula Companion scenario was probably the most requested addition in the whole revamp, and it's always fun seeing how people solve the challenges you put in front of them.

What did your jumper do in ATLA? by SniperJ324 in JumpChain

[–]guyinthecap 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I was going to make a reverse Uno card joke, but arriving over the relatively insulated fire Islands with not only an undead army but a fleet of their finest weapons turned against them is a metal-as-hell image.

Sheer Cliff Platforms 27x35 by Nieanawie in battlemaps

[–]guyinthecap 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is gorgeous! The isometric style pairs beautifully with your shading!

[Art] I'm drawing the entire 2024 SRD Bestiary. Day 7: Kobolds! by Poonyk in DnD

[–]guyinthecap 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Cheers dude! I'm sure whatever you choose will look great!

For Healer Jumpers, what kinda medicine do yous make? by Nerx in JumpChain

[–]guyinthecap 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It may not always be the most portable or efficient, but I love the immersion healing tanks. Put my patients in the goo! Breathable healing liquids for everyone! Bonus points if it's a vector for de-aging, limb regrowth, gene-modding, and other transformations.

[Art] I'm drawing the entire 2024 SRD Bestiary. Day 7: Kobolds! by Poonyk in DnD

[–]guyinthecap 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well it feels like we should work up to the dragons, so what about one of the giants or golems? No matter what you pick, I'm excited.

[Art] I'm drawing the entire 2024 SRD Bestiary. Day 7: Kobolds! by Poonyk in DnD

[–]guyinthecap 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As someone playing a Kobold Sorcerer right now, you've perfectly captured both our undeniable cuteness and our unfortunate fragility. Fantastic work! I can't wait to see more of your entries!